In April of 2017, the Blues Breakers did a memorable performance during the Heineken Rhythm & Blues Route with the transcendent British blues diva Bex Marshall. Since then there have been numerous requests to do a sequel. Unfortunately Bex exhausting tour schedule made it hard if not impossible to tune the agenda’s.

But finally, two years later, the planets will align and the Devilish Diva of Devonshire will join the old BluesBreakers for a short tour from April 26th until May 5th of 2019.

For those of you who have seen the show back in ’17, you know what you can expect! For those who didn’t….you don’t.

Occasionally a drummer will break a stick during a performance. Guitar players commonly snap a string or two depending on the force of their pick. On rare occasions bass players are known to break a string, probably while it was on there for over a decade.

It is uncommon for keyboard players to have these issues, but last Saturday during the last solo of the last song from the last set, Francesco managed to crack his stand in two under his relentless hammering of the ivories.

The audience cheered as his rig collapsed on the stage. One of the German fans said after the show: “I always wanted to see Pete Townsend perform his smash & trash act, but now I can die peacefully knowing I have seen it all”.

The BluesBreakers are happy to announce that the vacant drum throne will be occupied by none other than Eerde Kalsbeek. Eerde is a well-known drummer in the greater Arnhem region and a long time follower and friend of the band. We welcome this talented young man (it’s all relative) and look forward to playing together. No doubt his musical skills will be a great addition to the overall sound and his contribution will be inspiring great things.

Friday September 21st Hans ‘Manolito’ Deegens played the drums with the BluesBreakers for the last time. After almost 10 years he decided that it is time for something else. In the Bluescafé Apeldoorn, the audience chanted “Hansie! Hansie!” as a farewell to the long time backbone of the band. With Hans we loose a wonderful drummer, but above all a great band member. For 10 years he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, full of energy and good spirit, always ready to lend a helping hand wherever he could. Technically inclined, he often doubled as sound engineer, roadie, technician, cable repair man and fixer (of things!),

With Hans departure the whisky consumption of the band will be cut in half. On behalf of all the guys in the band and all the fans, we wish Hans all the best and lots of success in his future project(s). He may be gone as a drummer, but he remains as a lifetime friend.

Tune in to Radio Ridderkerk on Thursday, March 16th for an exclusive live performance of the BluesBreakers on the legendary ‘Bluezy‘ show, hosted by Nico Bravenboer.

For those not within FM distance of Ridderkerk, check out their live feed: here or here (does that really work?) and don’t forget to send Nico some love on his facebook for all the hard work he’s putting in keeping the blues alive.

Show starts at 8 PM CET. That’s 2 o’clock in Chi-town or as we like to call it…Lunch Break!

As you probably know, the BluesBreakers make it a tradition to show up in Tolkamer with a special guest. Throughout the years a long line of international artists have showed up on stage for the annual homecoming concert (the BluesBreakers rehearse in Tolkamer, the Netherlands). This year we found a fantastic Dutch singer willing to jam with us on this occasion. We are not allowed to post any names yet, but nobody said anything about posting pictures. So if you know who this lady is, please keep it to yourself for a little while longer…

After six years it was time to give ye ol’ website a little makeover. Apart from the design, we listened to your constructive criticism and motivational suggestions and changed a few essentials. Most noticeably, the site is now in English only. Sorry people in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and of course Austria, but having to enter everything in four languages was just too much work. We figured that if you can’t read our copy, then you can’t understand our lyrics either and maybe the blues just isn’t for you.

Other changes in no particular order. The calendar/tour dates page is now faster than ever. We cleaned up the photo albums and transferred the whole thing to Flickr (really Google, make up your mind what you want to do and then do it right). We got rid of some redundant pages and added some new redundant ones. The ever popular guestbook has disappeared in favor of the option to comment on everything that is being said and done (including this lousy introduction). Oh well, what you see is what you got. We are still looking for a new editor, so if you feel like contributing to our success for little or no financial compensation, are familiar with WordPress or willing to experiment, if your English skills are off the chart and you have an affinity for blues and/or rhythm ‘n’ blues, then pick up an application from at one of our concerts and maybe you too can contribute to keeping the blues alive (our blues specifically).

We hope you will find this new site as pleasing and informative as the old one which you graced with often incredible visitor numbers. Most importantly, we hope that seeing this site will inspire you to come and party with us at one of our concerts. Because without you, it’s just not worth it. We thank you for your continued support. May the blues be with you.